Jail Bans Orange Uniforms After OITNB Makes Them ‘Cool’

Ever since Piper and the gang made Litchfield seem like a one-stop-shop for a good-ass time, it feels as though jail is suddenly “in”. Not feeling the institution’s sudden spike in popularity, however, is the officials running the joints, and are taking steps to un-do the damage pop culture has done to their overall perception.

Sheriff William Federspiel, overseer of Saginaw County Jail in Michigan, is making sure the inmates aren’t ~hip with the groove thing~ by changing their uniforms from the standard orange jumpers to the old school black-and-white stripped ones. How… Three Stooges of them. According to his official statement, “When the lines get blurred between the culture outside the jail and the culture within the jail, I have to do something to redefine those boundaries, because they’ve been blurred far too often in public culture.”

The public borrowing style cues from the inmates is problematic, said Federspiel, mainly because when they leave the premises he wants to make sure there is no confusion between the time-doers and those wearing all-orange-everything out of their own free will.

Being that Orange Is The New Black has become a breakout hit and a major part of pop culture, it’s no surprise that institutions are doing everything to prevent the idea that committing these crimes is “fashionable” or “trendy”. So while the Litchfield crew may be rocking the shit out of their colorful hues on Netflix, it seems that it prisons IRL will be making sure stripes are the new black.